Five years ago, JFA released a working paper to respond to the strongest versions of bodily rights arguments for abortion. Equal Rights Institute (ERI) recently released a video featuring one of the contributors to that paper, Timothy Brahm (former staff member of both JFA and ERI), in which he takes a different approach than our paper, one that we think is an even more helpful response to bodily rights. It’s called, “Blood Donation and Bodily Rights Arguments.” Some of our staff think it’s even better than our paper. In 12 minutes, Tim deftly responds to the most common challenges and gives you a framework that you can apply to the most common and most difficult bodily rights arguments. (Indeed, he also shares some reasons why our original paper may not be the most persuasive — helpful critique that we welcome!) JFA’s “It’s Her Body” series last year set the appropriate context for any discussion of bodily rights. Pairing ERI’s video with “It’s Her Body”, will give you a great primer on bodily rights, as well as a great conversation starter.
A Four-Year-Old Helps Save a Life
Impact Report, June 2019
In this Impact Report, we share a story that’s been passed down from the early days of Justice For All. The lead character is a four-year-old we’ll call “Rachel” (name changed for privacy). If Rachel was able to help save an unborn child’s life, can’t we do the same?
In the story, Rachel makes use of video footage captured using a technique called embryoscopy. At the time when the story took place, embryoscopy footage was rare and rarely seen. But now the Endowment for Human Development (EHD) has made embryoscopy footage free and readily available through a stunning website, EHD’s amazing apps, and through a new short film (see video below).
JFA recently released a K-4 lesson plan for free on the web (sign-up for updates required). The lesson plan features the video footage from EHD with the hope that we can enable thousands of churches, schools, and families to teach their children (and adults!) to do what Rachel did so naturally: speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. - Steve Wagner, Executive Director
When “Rachel” went to preschool, she just had to tell her teacher what she had seen.
Rachel had recently climbed into her daddy’s lap as he was preparing the next day’s lesson for his ninth grade biology class. Together, they watched rare footage of very young unborn children, captured using a technique called embryoscopy. Unlike the sonography of the time, these video images were crystal clear. They watched the heart beating through the semi-transparent skin of the embryo. They saw the young fetus move her hands and legs. They watched unborn children open and close their mouths. Rachel was electrified.
As JFA’s founder, David Lee, paraphrased the story years later, here’s what happened next:
Soon after seeing the video with her father, Rachel told her preschool teacher that she had seen babies in their mother’s tummies. She described them in detail. Of course, her preschool teacher knew that wasn’t possible and gently scolded Rachel: “While that is a fun story, it is not really a good thing to make up stories.”
When Rachel’s mother came to pick her up, the teacher felt it necessary to inform Rachel’s mother that she had scolded Rachel for not being entirely truthful. Rachel’s mother replied, “On the contrary, she did see that, sitting in her father’s lap, because he was going to be showing it to his biology class.”
Of course the preschool teacher felt awful. But what might have been the end of a slightly embarrassing story was only the beginning. Not long after, the teacher was entering her apartment, unlocking the door, when she was tapped on the shoulder by her neighbor in the apartment building who was holding a pregnancy test. The neighbor said, “Can you help me read this? I’ve never done this before.”
The teacher was a little embarrassed by the situation, but as a Christian, she decided she must help. She welcomed the young woman into her apartment. Together, they read the test. Her neighbor was pregnant.
The neighbor could only say, “Would you help me go to get an abortion?”
The preschool teacher was shocked and said, “I could never help you do that. I couldn’t help you kill your baby.”
Then it was time for the neighbor to be shocked as she said, “What do you mean, a baby? I’m just four or five weeks pregnant. How could it be a baby?”
““What do you mean, a baby? I’m just four or five weeks pregnant. How could it be a baby?”
The light went on in the preschool teacher’s head: This young woman needed to see the very same footage that Rachel had been talking about at the preschool.
The teacher talked to Rachel’s mother and shared the story about the neighbor who was pregnant and intending to get an abortion. “May I borrow the video to show my neighbor?”
To make a long story short, she did show her neighbor and the boyfriend that video. And there’s a baby whose life was saved, in part because a four-year-old saw video of unborn children and shared it with her friends and her teacher.
If a four-year-old can learn about unborn children and speak up for them so naturally, we think elementary school students (and the rest of us) certainly can watch similar video footage and share what they’ve learned. We think we’ll see lives saved as a result. That’s why JFA has just released our first elementary school lesson plan for widespread use: “The Baby’s Heart Beats Like Mine.” Please click here to access it, download it, share it, and teach it!
Although the lesson can be fun for any age, it’s intended for use with students in kindergarten through fourth grade. As for older students, why not encourage them to help you teach the lesson to your younger students?
In this lesson, K-4 students identify with unborn babies through a series of experiences, including feeling their own heartbeats, seeing the unborn baby in the womb, naming similarities they share with unborn babies, making a bracelet that reminds them of when the heart begins to beat, and narrating what they learned to their parents. The goal is to help them value all human beings including the smallest ones and to get conversations about unborn babies started in churches, schools, and the broader culture.
This K-4 Lesson Plan is well-suited for one-to-many instruction in religious elementary schools, Sunday school environments, and homeschool co-ops, and it's also well-suited for use by parents and grandparents in teaching their kids and grandkids one-to-one.
Justice For All makes this copyrighted Lesson Plan available to anyone to use. To share it with anyone anywhere in the world, use the address www.jfaweb.org/heart-beats-like-mine. You’ll be directed to sign up as a "JFA Content Subscriber." That's free. It's just our way of making sure we can keep in contact with folks using the lesson plan. (Or, you can share this lesson plan summary and letter using the link www.jfaweb.org/june-2019.)
Pray with JFA (June) - Current Projects
Pray for More Advocates and More Conversations Through All of JFA’s Projects:
Here are a few of our projects and needs for which you can pray specifically this month:
Outreach Events: UCLA (May 20-22) & Wichita State University (June 26)
Upcoming Workshops in MI, KS, TX, & PA: Find more event information on JFA’s Calendar page.
New Staff: Kaitlyn Donihue and Susanna Buckley recently accepted positions to work for JFA (in Michigan and the Washington, D.C. region respectively). Pray that God would quickly bring in the monthly support they need. Go to our Donate Page if you would like to help.
JFA Trainers Raising Support: All of JFA’s trainers are working to raise additional support during the summer. Pray that we can successfully connect with many people.
25 Churches & 50 Families: We’ve recently released a lesson plan that can help you and your friends to teach K-4 students to identify with and love unborn children. Pray with us for 25 churches and 50 families to download and teach the lesson plan this summer. Pray they would give us feedback as we work to expand the reach of the lesson to thousands more soon. Click here for more information.
Kaitlyn Donihue (left) recently accepted a position to work for JFA in Michigan.
Susanna Buckley (middle) recently accepted a position to work for JFA in Washington D.C.
Teach Kids with Our New K-4 Lesson Plan
**Yes, this is the same resource we’ve been proud to highlight for the past two months! It’s that important!**
Whether you teach kids at home, in a church Sunday School, or in a traditional school environment, be one of the first to download and teach “The Baby’s Heart Beats Like Mine” lesson plan to students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Then give us feedback. During the lesson, K-4 students identify with unborn babies through a series of experiences, including feeling their own heartbeats, seeing the unborn baby in the womb, naming similarities they share with unborn babies, making a bracelet that reminds them of when the heart begins to beat, and narrating what they learned to their parents. (“Sign Up” to access this “Member Only” content. That’s free!)
Start Conversations with Our New K-4 Lesson Plan
**Yes, this is the same resource we’ve been proud to highlight for the past two months! It’s that important!**
JFA developed our new K-4 Lesson Plan (click here to read a brief description) partly to “drive interest” in discussions about unborn children within churches and other communities. Here’s how we envision that working: You download the lesson plan and teach any group of K-4 kids (or you can teach just one!). During the lesson, students practice sharing what they’ve learned with their parents, and then take home a bracelet and a “Student and Parent Handout” to facilitate those conversations about the unborn child. We anticipate this will not only create conversations among parents and students but also among parents and teachers and others in the community! Help us test this idea to see if it will work.
Did "Thousands" of Women Die Each Year Before Roe?
“These numbers were debunked in 1969 — 50 years ago — by a statistician celebrated by Planned Parenthood. There’s no reason to use them today.”
The claim that “thousands of women died every year” from illegal, botched abortions prior to Roe v. Wade is widely repeated by such prominent voices as the Los Angeles Times’ executive editor Norman Pearlstine in this recent op ed and even by the President of Planned Parenthood. But is it true?
Thanks to the fact checkers at the Washington Post, we now have a clear answer.
I Didn't See This Coming
May 2019 Impact Report
Kaitlyn Donihue shares the brochure in a conversation at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado in March 2019. (Photos shared in this story courtesy of Master Plan Ministries)
Our team was conducting outreach at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado in March 2019. A young man came up and signed the poll table. I asked him whether he thought abortion should be legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy, or just for a window of time in pregnancy.
“Definitely all nine months,” he said.
“Ok. I am really curious. Women get abortions for a lot of different reasons. How do you feel about a circumstance in which a woman wants a boy, but realizes that she is pregnant with a girl—should she be allowed to get an abortion for that reason?”
“Yes,” he said emphatically. “Women should have choices.”
“So you think that abortion should be legal through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason at all? Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
JFA volunteers dialogue with students at Fort Lewis College in March 2019. (Photo courtesy of Master Plan Ministries)
At this point, I wanted to go talk to someone else. I did not want to talk to someone who was that staunchly pro-choice, but instead I said,
“I agree with what you said a minute ago. Women should have the freedom to make choices. Freedom is so important. I am so glad that I live in a country where I have rights and freedom. There are many countries around the world where I, as a woman, would not have rights.”
JFA volunteers dialogue with students at Fort Lewis College in March 2019. (Photo courtesy of Master Plan Ministries)
“Now, this is going to sound strange,” I said, “But I am also glad that I do not have some rights. For example, I do not have the right to walk onto this campus with a gun and start shooting people. My rights end where your rights begin. So I think the question we have to ask with the issue of abortion is, ‘What is the unborn?’ If the unborn is not a human being and abortion does not kill a human being, then I think you are right. If that were the case, then abortion should be legal through all nine months for any reason. But if the unborn is a human being and abortion actually takes the life of a human being, then even though there are really difficult situations in which women find themselves, I don't think those situations can justify taking the life of a human being. What do you think? Do you think the unborn is a human being?”
I pulled out the JFA brochure and showed him pictures of development.
“Yes. Yes, I think it is a human being. You’re right. This is wrong. We can’t kill human beings,” he said thoughtfully.
“Do you think that abortion should not be legal?”
“Yes. I don’t think it should be legal.” He was staring at the pictures of development.
One conversation during the recent outreach at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado (Photo courtesy of Master Plan Ministries)
“The next page of this brochure contains some graphic pictures of what abortion does. Would you mind if I showed them to you?”
“No. That would be okay.”
I opened the brochure, and we stood there in silence for a couple of moments. He was very thoughtful.
“This should never be legal,” he said.
Through this conversation, I was reminded that I cannot really know another person or his beliefs until I take the time to ask questions and hear him out. I never know what God might do, even in the heart of a student that seems closed off.
Pray with JFA (May)
UCLA - May 21, 2019
See more photos from last week’s JFA events at UCLA, below.
Pray for Changed Hearts and Saved Lives:
I was in the plane last week traveling to our recent events in Los Angeles. The man sitting next to me, on his own without any provocation from me, brought up the recent Alabama law that banned abortion outright. He saw it as unconscionably “extreme.” This law in Alabama and similar laws in Georgia and other states are getting the conversation about abortion and unborn children started all around us. Let’s pray for JFA’s training events as we prepare Christians to be ready for these opportunities. Let’s pray God will use our outreach events to strengthen courage in all of us to speak up. - Steve Wagner, Executive Director
Mar. 17-19 (Durango, CO): Seminar & Outreach Events with Master Plan Ministries
Mar. 23-26 (Albuquerque, NM): Seminars & Outreach Events near/at University of New Mexico (UNM)
Mar. 31-April 2 (Lawrence, KS): Seminar & Outreach Events at/near University of Kansas (KU)
April 15, 24 (Fairfax, VA): Outreach Events at George Mason University (GMU)
April 23-25 (OK and TX): Outreach Events at Oklahoma State University (OSU) & University of North Texas (UNT)
May 18-22 (Los Angeles Area, CA): Seminars & Outreach Events near/at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
UCLA - May 2019
(Pictured - right: Kaitlyn Donihue, JFA Intern)
UCLA - May 2019
(Pictured - middle: Steve Wagner, Executive Director)
UCLA - May 2019
(Pictured - right: Tammy Cook, JFA Trainer)
UCLA - May 2019
(Pictured - left: Rebekah Dyer, JFA Fellow)
Pray for Rylei and Students Like Her
Pray with JFA (April):
This month, when Jeremy Gorr showed up in Phoenix to teach a seminar, he was met with a surprise: Rylei, a high school student he helped train in 2017 and 2018 in Colorado, was now a student at Arizona State University and eager to become active changing hearts and minds at ASU. Jeremy’s letter, “Growing Up with Justice For All” tells Rylei’s story. Please pray for Rylei’s conversations at ASU, and pray that God would continue to help Rylei, JFA alumni like her, and JFA’s training team, as all of us speak up this month for forgotten women and children.
We’ve recently conducted outreach events at Univ. of Kansas (4/1-2), Univ. of Northern Colorado (4/8-9), George Mason Univ. in Fairfax, VA (4/15, 4/24), Oklahoma State Univ. (4/23) and Univ. of North Texas (4/24-25). We’re looking forward to seminar and outreach events at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA on May 19-22. Please join us or pray for us!
Outreach with Cowboys for Life at Oklahoma State University - April 23, 2019
Teach Kids with Our New K-4 Lesson Plan
JFA just released a lesson plan for K-4 elementary school students called, “The Baby’s Heart Beats Like Mine.” Whether you teach kids at home, in a church Sunday School, or in a traditional school environment, be one of the first to try this lesson and give us feedback. During the lesson, K-4 students identify with unborn babies through a series of experiences, including feeling their own heartbeat, seeing the unborn baby in the womb, naming similarities they share with unborn babies, making a bracelet that reminds them of when the heart begins to beat, and narrating what they learned to their parents.
(You’re required to “Sign Up” to access this “Member Only” content. That’s free!)
(Note: This resource was our “Featured Resource” for April 2019 and May 2019.)
Start Conversations with Our New K-4 Lesson Plan
JFA developed our new K-4 Lesson Plan (click here to read a brief description) partly to “drive interest” in discussions about unborn children within churches and other communities. Here’s how we envision that working: You download the lesson plan and teach any group of K-4 kids (or you can teach just one!). During the lesson, students practice sharing what they’ve learned with their parents, and then take home a bracelet and a “Student and Parent Handout” to facilitate those conversations about the unborn child. We anticipate this will not only create conversations among parents and students but also among parents and teachers and others in the community! Help us test this idea to see if it will work.
Next Steps After Seeing UNPLANNED
Due to my busy travel schedule, I was unable to see the movie Unplanned until its fourth week in theaters. Thankfully it was still playing in the city where I live. My wife, Trudy, and I saw it late one Tuesday night.
Poster artwork used with permission
We were moved by Abby's powerful story of transformation after witnessing an abortion inside the Planned Parenthood where she worked as Director. I thought the movie was hard to watch. It tugged on a lot of emotions as we saw the characters’ stories develop, but I didn’t think it deserved an R-rating. There were only three scenes that had any gruesome or violent content in them.
I did appreciate Ashley Bratcher’s comment regarding the MPAA rating of the film. In an interview with Plugged In (which reviews popular entertainment from a Christian perspective), Ashley, the actress that played Abby Johnson in the film, said,
“Well, first I just want to say that the MPAA gave us the rating only because of abortion… There’s nothing else that warrants the R rating, except for the abortion scenes. They said if you’ll take out the abortion scenes, we’ll drop it to PG-13. Well then that defeats our entire purpose in telling the story.”
As important as it was to see and support the movie, it should be a springboard. It should spur us on to be active and engage our culture. What should that next step be? It depends for each person and what season of life he or she is in. Here are a couple of links to resources with a some ideas:
May I suggest one more? Have a conversation today. Having a conversation about abortion may not seem that significant, or you may not feel like you are doing enough. I find on campus that many pro-life people don’t know what their friends think about abortion. Many times their friends hold an opposing view to theirs, and they don’t know it.
“As important as it was to see and support the movie, it should be a springboard. It should spur us on to be active and engage our culture. ”
What does your neighbor, a family member, a friend, or a fellow churchgoer think about abortion? Your influence in that person’s life can effect real change in our world!
Want to learn how to start a conversation? I suggest you try our free Learn at Home Program, which gives you the basics for starting and having a conversation on abortion. Click here to request a Learn at Home packet, and along with it, you will receive two of our new brochures called, “An Invitation to Dialogue about Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion.” (Or, click here for the online version of all four Learn at Home 15-minute lessons.) You can also call our office (316.683.6426) to request Learn at Home materials by phone, learn about upcoming JFA seminars and outreach events, or talk to a JFA trainer directly.
JFA Outreach Featured in The UNC Mirror
This month, JFA held a two-day outreach event (April 8-9) at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. The student newspaper, The UNC Mirror, covered the event.
Click here to read the article, including an interview with JFA Trainer Grace Fontenot.
Click above to read the full interview and coverage of JFA’s recent outreach at University of Northern Colorado in The UNC Mirror.
Growing Up with Justice For All
One of the most critical parts of our work is training Christians to have conversations about abortion so that they can change people’s hearts and minds. It is always great to see this process working in the real world. I saw it recently at a seminar I gave in Phoenix when one of the participants, Rylei, told me her story.
This is Rylei after a conversation at her first outreach event at Colorado State University in 2017.
We initially trained Rylei as a junior in high school at Faith Christian Academy in 2017. Often when we train Christian students, they tell us that they don’t know who to talk to because all of their friends are pro-life. One of her high school classmates commented, “Because of our culture, I rarely even considered abortion and its morality. This [experience with JFA] really helped show what it is and the impact it really has in America.”
The value of our training, however, lasts throughout these students’ lives. In Rylei’s case, she is now a student at Arizona State University with two pro-choice roommates.
I asked her how her JFA training helped her talk to her pro-choice friends about abortion.
Most of my pro-choice friends haven’t thought through their position very much. I was writing a paper for my class on the pro-life position, using the same arguments you guys gave me. While writing the paper, one of my roommates saw me watching a video of a pro-life person having a conversation with a pro-choice person, and said, “Wow, he is really destroying her pro-choice arguments.” So she’s hearing the arguments as I’m researching my paper. So I find ways to naturally bring up the topic of abortion with them.
Rylei also has a passion for doing outreach at her campus. That passion was born from the outreach she did with us in high school. I am always thinking of how difficult it must be for a high school student like Rylei, who was 16 her first time doing outreach, to engage college students on a difficult topic like abortion.
Rylei’s first exposure to Justice For All was during our seminar at her high school in 2017. Here JFA trainer CK Wisner (center, curly hair) leads her mentor group in interactive exercises and discussion as Rylei (facing CK) listens.
That is what makes outreach such an important part of our training program. Once someone overcomes the initial fear of talking about abortion, this newfound confidence can even last a lifetime. One of her classmates at that first outreach experience said, “Outreach taught me that getting uncomfortable is a really good thing. When God is with you, you don’t have to fear.”
I asked Rylei about her outreach experiences during high school.
I love it. Every time. It is so rewarding, honestly. I know the first time I was super nervous, [and] I got thrown right into a conversation. But after you get through the first conversation I feel like it gets a lot easier.
During her senior year in high school in 2018, Rylei joined us for outreach again, this time at Metro State University in Denver.
Rylei is a living example of our training program in action. Rylei left high school with good arguments for the pro-life position, good skills for conversations about them, and courage to actually have conversations about abortion with those who disagree with her position. She was totally equipped for dealing with her pro-choice roommates and reaching her largely pro-choice campus.
Because of your support of Justice For All, we were able to be there to help Rylei each step of the way. She attended a JFA seminar and then an outreach event at CSU in 2017. She participated again in 2018 at Metro State University. And just last week because of a JFA seminar event, we had the privilege of encouraging her to become active at Arizona State University, where she is now a student. Thank you for partnering with us as we serve students like Rylei, so that they can become effective advocates of their pro-life position to their future pro-choice friends—many of whom will face an unplanned pregnancy in their future.
Empathy Opens the Door
“I was in the broken foster care system and have seen the challenges of adoption—I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, so I am pro-choice,” replied “Eva” cautiously. I had asked for her opinion on abortion as she approached our exhibit at the University of North Texas (UNT). She continued to walk, appearing to have little interest in a discussion.
“Eva” was more willing to focus on the unborn because I showed empathy for her suffering first. Here JFA volunteer Mark creates a similar moment for another UNT student. (Photo: University of North Texas, November 2018)
At that point, I was tired from a long day of conversations. My knee-jerk reaction to her anecdotal reasoning was to give a quick, factual response, but that approach wouldn’t have served Eva. She appeared to be skeptical and shy, worried that I might lash out with a firm response. I wanted my words to be meaningful and gracious to Eva. I wanted her to truly hear that I cared.
So instead of following my initial impulse I said, “I hear you, and I want you to know that I don’t think the foster care and adoption systems are perfect, or that these processes are easy or smooth. I’m sorry if anyone, especially a pro-life advocate, has ever implied that they are. I know that many cases do play out well, but I also know that even in the best cases, placing someone for adoption, adopting a baby, or being placed in foster care are very complex processes logistically and emotionally. We pro-life advocates need to research more and learn to listen and empathize better.”
“I hear you, and I want you to know that I don’t think the foster care and adoption systems are perfect, or that these processes are easy or smooth. I’m sorry if anyone, especially a pro-life advocate, has ever implied that they are.”
Eva was visibly relieved that I had acknowledged the challenges she brought up, and she was encouraged that I asked questions that allowed her to open up about her life growing up in the foster care system. She seemed very thankful to be heard.
Eventually, I felt we had reached a moment when it would be fruitful to return to the topic of abortion. Our dialogue went something like this:
Jon: Would you agree that many of the challenges faced by children in foster care actually increase as they get older? I’ve heard that it’s often especially difficult to place an older child for adoption.
Eva: I definitely agree with that.
Jon: Knowing that, then, how should we treat infants, toddlers, and young kids who are currently in a difficult foster care or adoption situation? Even though they face increasingly challenging circumstances, would ending the lives of these children ever be an acceptable solution to their problems?
Eva: Of course not. Regardless of the challenges, violence is not the answer.
Jon: I agree. Eva, it seems to me that this relates directly to the topic of abortion. If the unborn are fully human like older children in the foster care system, then wouldn’t that mean that the unborn should be protected in the same way? Shouldn’t children be protected despite the challenges they face, or the challenges that seem to lie ahead of them, at any stage in their development?
Eva: That makes sense. I would agree that if the unborn is a human being, just like children outside the womb in the foster care system, then they should be protected in the same way.
Eva then willingly processed through the information on our human development display, listening as I explained why we know that the preborn are whole, living, human beings. Furthermore, she heard me out as I shared that the preborn should not be treated differently because they look different than we do, or because they are inside of or dependent on their mothers. None of these reasons justify killing them. Eva then brought up pain sensation, asserting that perhaps it marks the start of value and worth for the unborn.
Eventually, after discussing that specific topic and several others, Eva agreed that abortion is wrong, at least after seven weeks. Even though she did not agree with me about the equality of the unborn before seven weeks of age, she seemed to shift on her view of many cases of abortion. Additionally, she now seemed more uncomfortable with all of them.
The most encouraging thing about my conversation with Eva didn’t come until the very end. As we concluded our dialogue, Eva wasn’t just content or thankful for being heard—she was beaming. I offered Eva a bottle of water since we had been talking for a while, and it was warming up. She said, “Yes, I’d love a water, but I was actually going to offer to buy you a drink and a snack in the union as a sign of gratitude for our conversation.” Eva chose to bless me, even though I had just disagreed with her very firmly.
In the conversation Jon Wagner (orange hat) had with Eva, he had the opportunity to share JFA’s brochure and his reasons for opposing abortion. The same happened with another UNT student pictured above. (Photo: University of North Texas, November 2018)
I handed Eva JFA’s new “Invitation to Dialogue” Brochure, and wrote down other websites she could go to for further study.* She was very open to these resources and promised to do further research. I gave Eva a hug, and she thanked our team for caring and engaging her campus in healthy discussion.
As I reflected back to the beginning of my interaction with Eva, one important principle stood out: I didn’t need to immediately make my next point when she first shared hers. I needed to empathize with her and acknowledge her ideas, even if they were unpersuasive, because she matters. Ironically, this was likely what prompted her interest in hearing what I had to say, after all. Eva ended up showing genuine interest in the reasons I opposed abortion and in discussing our differences. She even expressed interest in staying in contact and discussing the issue further.
Empathy for another person and genuine interest in another perspective drew together two unlikely friends. This was one of my favorite conversations last year. It showed once again the value of JFA’s Three Essential Skills: asking questions with an open heart, listening to understand, and finding common ground when possible.
* Websites Jon shared in this conversation:
www.abortionprocedures.com (videos describing abortion procedures)
www.commongroundbook.com (e-book: Common Ground Without Compromise: 25 Questions to Create Dialogue on Abortion, by Steve Wagner)
www.ehd.org (“See Baby” App: in-utero footage of the unborn at each week)